There has long existed a problem in the formulation of bleaching compositions in that the effective perfuming of such compositions is difficult to achieve. The perfume is required to remain stable at a commercially usable level during storage prior to use and then be available for effective delivery to the surface without being altered or destroyed by the bleach component.
Perfume is added to a bleach composition, in particular a detergent composition, to provide an olfactory benefit in the product during use and to enhance the olfactory properties of the treated surface.
The effective perfuming of fabric, as an example of surfaces, that has already been bleached and washed can be achieved by incorporation of a suitable perfume in a fabric conditioner to be added during the rinsing or drying stage subsequent to a bleaching and washing step, but this necessitates the introduction of an additional step in the laundry process.
The use of peracids in detergent formulations presents a particularly hostile environment for perfume compositions. The present invention provides peracid bleach-stable perfume compositions. It is also known to generate a peracid bleaching species in the wash liquor by incorporating a peroxide bleach material, for example sodium perborate, and a bleach precursor, for example N,N,N.sup.1,N.sup.1 -tetraacetyl ethylene diamine (TAED). The present invention does not relate to these systems in which the peracid bleach species is formed in situ.
Neither should the term peracid, as used in this specification, be held to include hydrogen peroxide or bleaches which work by generating hydrogen peroxide, such as, for example, sodium perborate, and sodium percarbonate.